Chasing Allie (Breaking Away Series #2) by Meli Raine Read Free Book Online

pressed against Chase as we fill our stomachs and watch the waves roll in. I could stare at the water forever. Its rhythm becomes my heartbeat.
    As we finish our drinks and food, I let out a big, deep sigh.
    “Happy?” Chase asks, smiling with such intense emotion I could spend forever just looking at him.
    “Beyond happy.”
    “What’s the word for that?” he asks.
    “Chase.”
    “No,” he says, frowning.
    “Then what?”
    “Allie.”
    “Is this our first argument?” I joke as I stand and toss my trash in a nearby can. He does the same.
    “If it is, it’s pretty lame.” His arms wrap around me and I press my ear against his heart. It beats in time with the ocean waves, a shhh shhh shhh sound that grounds me.
    “May all our arguments be so lame,” I mutter into his chest. The rumble of laughter makes my face move. 
    “Someday you’ll find something about me you don’t like and you’ll scream at me and call me an asshole and throw dishes at my head,” he says in an amused voice.
    I pull back and cock an eyebrow. “You’d have to do something horrible for me to do that.”
    “We’re all capable of doing horrible things, Allie,” he says softly.
    “Not you,” I insist. “And not me. And not here.” He cuts off my words with a kiss.
    “Let me say this, Allie,” he says as he breaks the kiss. “I’ve never met anyone like you before. When I walked into that bar a few weeks ago and saw you, it was like all those stupid clichés rolled into one shining moment. My heart stopped. My body went hard. My mind turned into a blender. And all I wanted was you. To be with you. To touch you.” 
    My heart leaps into my throat. He’s stroking my arm in time with the waves.
    “To love you,” he says. Chase’s eyes have turned to firelight, the amber mingling with the yellow and brown in the twilight. I can see the love in them. Feel it in his gaze.
    And he just said it.
    “Love,” he says again. “I know it’s crazy. I was talking to Frenchie and David about how I feel about you, and they both said it’s fate.”
    “Frenchie and David?” I choke out.
    He laughs. “Yeah, not in the same conversation. And I know Frenchie’s kind of an asshole, but he’s a good friend. A good guy when you get to know him.”
    I make a snort of surprise.
    “How in the hell did we go from me talking about loving you to Frenchie?” Chase asks with a WTF? look on his face. 
    “You brought him up. Maybe loving me makes you think about him?” I joke. Even saying the words loving me makes me feel like the world is off kilter. Like I’ve tipped into a different dimension.
    He groans. “I’m going to start over. I’m hitting rewind on this conversation. Scratch Frenchie and David.” He drags me to the Ferris wheel on the other side of the pier, fingers laced with mine. Chase is running and I keep up with him, his words looping through my mind. 
    Love.
    Love love love .
    Chase buys two tickets and we climb on. He sits next to me and takes both my hands in his, resting the pile of our four hands in his lap. The grain of the denim of his jeans brushes against my fingers. I feel like I’m memorizing everything. Like I have to. 
    The Ferris wheel lurches and we fly up, my stomach dropping. As the wheel moves us higher into the sky it suddenly stops. I look down. A new group of people is boarding.
    When I look back at Chase his eyes are glowing with intensity. “Allie,” he says, his voice grainy and serious. “I meant what I said. I love you. I know it’s so early, but when you know—you know. I can’t stop thinking about you. Hell, my goddamned body can’t stop wanting you. Every time you laugh I want to see you laugh again a thousand times more.”
    I can’t stop watching him.
    We lurch again and this time, I lose my balance, falling hard against him. His arms are right there, steadying me, warm and hard at the same time. His palms slide up from my shoulders and cradle my face. 
    “You make me want to